You know, there's all kind of things going on, but it's busted pencils.
Producers choice busted pencils fully. Let it education doc educated educators talking education, Dr.
Johnny Lupinaji minus his appendix, Jacob producer chairman of the boards made Dr. Tim
Slecker. And we are, well, I don't know, I don't know if I can say we are ready, Jacob, I, I think
I might be ready, but Dr. Lupinaji ready for what? What are you trying to say? I'm not ready, man,
I was already, I mean, you, you might think you're ready, but I don't know, man, just a reminder,
too. I mean, Johnny's back on what now day three, after losing his, not losing, he had his
appendix removed because I was like, when people, people say I lost my appendix, I'm like, well,
I'm sorry to hear that. Yeah, it's like you should find them then because I'm not very sorry to
have had mine removed. I'll tell you that. Well, I was just saying that he was already upset with me
on Monday. It wasn't exciting Labor Day, but we're back at it. Hey, we're at the end of the week,
man. We're day to week, but I'm just pointing out it's been, you know, it's been a rough week for
you in the sense of recovering. And so just, you know, I'm, it's been a doozy of a week. That's
I'm, I'm typically, you know, overly anxious and worried about producer's choice. Ah, I'm ready
to go. And I'm just thinking, you know, producer Jacob chairman of the board. Yeah, maybe,
maybe give Johnny a little bit of a, you know, a little soft spot tonight, if you can.
We're going to have a lot of fun, Tim, because we've got Dr. Lupi Nachi here today. And I think
that's going to be a lot of fun for the folks at home. Yeah. And, uh, we're, we're, Lupi Nachi.
That's the one. And, uh, I'm getting ready as the producer to put him forward for a courage
and broadcasting award for coming in despite losing in Appendix. So, um, it's a big week here,
busted pencils. I tell you, every day he, he gets up and, you know, busted pencils. He just,
you know, he's got to bust pencils. Play to win, Tim. Play to win. All right, but Jacob,
let's do the intro for two, two, producer at Jacob's choice, chairman of the board.
You and I will have two choices. Chairman of the board, Jacob.
Oh, Jacob chairman of the board. I, I've got the board to spell B-O-R-E-D.
We choose to go to the pool. Life's a tough choice.
You chose one.
Welcome to the producer's choice show, Dr. Kim Slecker, Dr. Johnny Lupi Nachi.
I want to remind our listeners at home that Johnny said,
Choo, Choo, when he was at 100%. That was normal, Johnny. So now we're going to see what happens
during this program. I think we're going to have a great time. Oh, yeah.
Fellas, now that the summer is coming to a close, children across the country are heading back
for an exciting new year of school, new pencils to bust, new notebooks, new backpacks.
It's, it's an exciting time for renewal and change. But there's one thing that never changes
about going back to school. And that is not wanting to be in school.
So Dr. Johnny Lupi Nachi, I know you're on the mend yourself. So today we're going to talk about
those coveted excused absences that kids across the nation are dreaming of receiving in the coming
days and weeks to avoid going to school. This came to mind for me because my little brother Jackson
has had a very successful first week back at high school. Okay, it's his first week of high school
freshman going in. It's gone really well. But after the first day, I called him on the phone
and he said, Oh, but my stomach isn't feeling so good. It's a no way, buddy. All right, you're not,
you're there's no way you just happen to catch the flu as you head back to school. So I'm not
fallen for that. That's what we're going to talk about it here. So to start things off,
Dr. Tim Slecker, did you ever fake sick to get out of going to school?
You know, yes, I did. Jacob. We got him, folks. I did. You know, in fact, sometimes I'm pretty
sure that Matthew, Matthew Broderick had spied on me early on and came up with the sixth scene
that he put in Ferris Bueller's day off after having watched my ruse to convince my mom that
there was no way I could go to school that day. No, I, you know what? I did that. Here's the thing,
though, right? I did that. Oh, mom, I just, you know, yeah, that sound effects you made. I mean,
you know, I kind of went into the bathroom and made those very, you know, I, I faked them,
you know, to kind of for the effect. And I came out of the bathroom like,
my I can't do it today. And I knew she would be going to work when Del was already at work. And
I was just like, you know what? I needed a mental health day, man. But I faked being sick. She left.
You know what, though? I think she knew I needed a mental health day and kind of went with it
and knew that my fake puking in the bathroom was nothing but a stage show. But yeah, I did. And
I think about that, though, too, and saying when I, when I would do that, it was just because it's
like, I just needed a break. Yeah. You know, and thinking about that now, I'm like, why don't we
just give kids like personal days from school that they can use? Because that's what I needed. So
yes, Jacob, I did fake being sick to miss school. I like that idea, Tim, because I think what
you said about your mom kind of knowing you guys are parents, if you can talk to this, but I think
there's always that, okay, I get it. Don't make it a habit. But yeah. All right. Yeah. Just, you
know, today. Yeah. Right. I mean, right. And now thinking about it, I'm like, I'm pretty sure
Luke and Lacey. Yeah. Occasionally sometimes. I was like, you know what, guys, stay home today.
I'm with you. Now, that's what I got me. Lupinachi. I, because you came in with a, with a hole
where your appendix used to be. I'm not sure if you'd ever do this, but have you ever fake sick
to get out of school? I'm going to say, Jacob, I'm trying to remember. I, I didn't. And it's,
and it, you know, I'm not, it's not, it's not a moral high ground here that I didn't. I just
never thought of it. I was the oldest child. And it wasn't really an option
to like opt out of what was going on in the day. I didn't do a lot of resisting the, like,
the orders from above in terms of like, my mom said this, my dad said, this is what's happening.
I kind of went with the flow. Oldest child, you know, there's not a lot of room for negotiation.
You know, I definitely think it's a good idea. And I'm with Tim, like, sometimes we need days off
because I tended to do get mine a different way. Go to school and get thrown out for the day.
You know, so, but, but I cannot remember a time faking sick. I'm also like the world's worst
fake sick actor liar guy. I can't, I mean, if you know me, you know, when I'm like telling,
telling you not the truth. So it wouldn't, it wouldn't work, man. I just never really floated,
it never tried it. I think, I think I tried it a few times early on, like, maybe even,
I don't even know, like, maybe early elementary to not go to church on Sunday. We used to,
you know, regular every Sunday. And I think it got, I'm, again,
oldest child, Italian family. I mean, there wasn't a lot of room for me to negotiate.
I think my brother and sister had a little bit more room to, you know, to try some of these
things. But no, we didn't have them. And Tim, back when we were in school, they didn't have
mental health days. They probably should have, right? But I wish they did, man. That would have
been, never been pretty awesome. No, but I never really faked sick. Also, Jacob, my parents had a
rule where if I had to stay home from school from, from being sick, like, oh, I know we're going,
yeah, there was like, you couldn't play sports, you couldn't do activities, you couldn't do
anything else. And so I was like, it just always seemed better. Even, and this isn't probably
the right thing. Even if you're sick, just go to school. And if you really, really can't be at
school that day, and this is where I say, I wish I had the option, you know, Tim, or I'd have
thought through it, you know, I just find a way to get sent out of school for the day, usually
an in-school suspension, because getting a parent to come get you from work wasn't, wasn't ideal.
You just made me think of something though, too. I'm on that. I, I think I went to school very sick,
lots of times, because I didn't want to miss the rest of the day, because actually that rule was
in effect at my house, too. If you were homesick, you weren't going out for the day. But on those days
where I just essentially wanted a mental health day, I was okay with going, you know what, fine,
I don't want to go out tonight either anyway. But, but boy, yeah, the amount of pain I would put
myself through to be able to come home from school and go out. Hey, Jacob, I know that wasn't your
question, but now that's good. Tim, I think, you know, at first, when you confessed your horrible
crime of faking sick to get out of school, I was, I almost felt, you know, oh, Jesus, this,
the Tim, I always thought he was. But then it turned out, you've kind of balanced it out,
because you went in sick as much as you skipped healthy. So it kind of balances out. And you're
a good boy, Tim. So I'm glad to hear that. Thank you, Jacob. Well, and I hope we get there. But if
not, we got to, I got to put in a request for a future producers choice. But man, some of the excuses
I've heard over the year. Oh my God. That could be a whole, a whole special episode. Jacob,
write that one down. And, yes. And anyway, moving on to the next question. Johnny, what are some of
the best excuses you've heard from students about why they can't come in? Oh, man. Well, I've heard
them, I've heard them all ranging from medical things I have actually have had to look up,
like really fancy names. Like, what even isn't appendix? Yeah. That could be one of, yeah,
you know, lots of them, especially in my early years, I teach, I say, teaching upper grades in
high school, or especially college, you know, you know, being a younger male, I'd get some real
fancy terms for, for menstruation that I was unfamiliar with. And I'd look up and be like,
oh, I've got no, what do I know about this is whether you can be in school during this or not.
But I will say in the last few years, and I actually put this in my syllabus, and it's a whole
bit I do. And I like, I like to believe it's true, because I like to believe the best that students
aren't out there faking things to not be in class. But I teach class, you know, in a college,
and it's, you know, morning classes, 8 AM to 12, 12 AM, it's like a block. And occasionally,
it falls after Halloween, and, or like the day of holiday around the Halloween and the fall,
or Valentine's Day, there's always a holiday. And I will tell you, I, single handedly,
I'm saving the lives of grandparents by not having class the day of or the day after a holiday.
I've learned this because when I have class the day over the day after a holiday, man, you would
not believe how many grandparents have passed away. And so I have followed this trend for almost
15 some years now. And I, and I can say to my students, I, I'm giving you this day off in advance
because I can promise you, single handedly, I am saving the lives of your grandparents
if they are still living because I have a trove of emails. I started to put them all in a folder,
a trove of emails that I would like to believe in a class this many people's grandparents
pass away on the day of or the day after a holiday, right, when I have class in the morning. So Jacob,
that's my favorite excuse, as though in a, in a class of, you know, 70 or 80 other students,
the professor may not notice that 17 other grandparents also also passed away. This is one of the
go-to's. If you're a listener out there, just don't use the passing away of a relative because
us professors, we're really worried like we're, we're going to have to stop having class
just to save lives. Well, there you go. You know, tell, have you had any interesting excuses in your time?
Well, I, I was going to say so, you know, teaching second and mostly fifth grade, you know,
pretty much if they were sick, they weren't giving me an excuse. It was the next day,
because this was also one of the requirements. Johnny, I need an excuse from you from yesterday,
you were out. My dad didn't write it for me, Mr. Schlecker. I'm like, well, you need to tell
your dad, I need an excuse because for some reason, a handwritten poorly, you know, legible excuse
from a so-called parent went into some permanent record for the family to document that their
kid was legally sick. But I had the, yeah, in college, though, like Johnny was going to say, he took
mine. I mean, the, yeah, the, the amount of dying and or, you know, some form of close to death,
grandparent, uncle, brother, you know, best friends, nephew. It gets really space ballsy sometimes.
But yeah, and like Johnny said, it was just, you know, you sit there and go like,
yeah, and this is more of the joke, but you know, sometimes it's kind of like, I'm like, this is the
fourth time your grandmother died. She's very unlucky. Yeah. And, and you do get the occasional just
really out there ones that I got to give a lot of credit to. I got one last semester. And it was
a rather lengthy email that could be summarized as my roommates best friends friend broke up with
their boyfriend who was cheating on them with their best friends, other friend. And I couldn't even
follow it. It was like several sentences of, of drama that didn't quite ever connect to the student
and ended with, so I won't be in class today. This is a, this is one of those classics. Like,
it was almost like, it was, let's see if I can confuse him with enough directions of different
reasons of why crazy things might be happening around or near me. And given that, I'm not going
to be in school today. So I gave a lot of creative effort to that one. I thought that was, that
deserved to me just being like, yep, excused absent. Sounds good to me. I think he did the right
thing. I don't want to get involved in this twisted love triangle by trying to find out what
happened. I'm just, okay, yeah, go, go do that. That, that sounds good. That sounds like a quadruple
and pipe a triangle, though. I mean, you get, Tim, you probably got these, especially in college,
too. And I, and I always have a hard time because I get it, but I have to hold them economically.
Like, it's March madness or, or, hey, the, your, our class goes till 630 and the football game
starts at four, you know, what, what, what, oh, I, I got a, I definitely, I mean, in college,
because you get the kind of like, Hey, Dr. Slecker, we were all thinking. So the entire class
had gotten together. And, you know, this Friday is whatever it would be. We were thinking that
maybe you might want to have, you know, class, first of all, downtown at the coffee shop.
And then maybe be done, you know, after maybe only conducting 20 minutes worth of class.
And be like, and you know what? Sometimes I was just like, you know, you guys are kind, you got
together, you're saying, Hey, I'm like, yeah, let's go to the coffee shop. Let's hang off for 20
minutes. And you can have the day off, but no, Johnny, it is. It's like occasionally. Yeah,
there's a football game. You know, Hey, there's, you know, we all, we all want to do something,
you know, and it's just like, yeah, whatever, go for it. But I don't know. I mean, they are.
Now the other thing with this related Jacob, and it's related to your sound effect,
take it over a little here. Let's talk more about that. That sound effect. I am thinking about
the number of times that someone yapped in class. Oh, and I created a chain reaction.
This was like, this might be my nightmare as a teacher. It was like, you know, it's difficult
enough for a student who's truly like sick, right? They lose, you know, throw up in school,
or like in the hallway. But then like, it's like that noise, which I believe was the sound
effect. And then it was like, then it would be, you would just, you'd wait like as a teacher,
you'd be like, Oh, no, no, no, please, please. Just don't look if you can't like any. And then
you'd hear like four more go. Oh, oh, what was that movie that that happened? It was that
stand by me? I was a torrent of vomit. I don't, I don't really remember, but Johnny, I know you're
going to say that. I mean, I remember it first as a kid when one of my classmates puked,
if I saw it, I was following right in their footsteps. I couldn't do it. And my first
couple of years of teaching, I would be, I would literally go next door to Mr. Weekland.
I'll be like, Jeff, I got a puke in there, man. I need you because I couldn't do it because I
would puke right along with them. And I like, I couldn't see. It wasn't the sound. It was as soon
as I saw that projection coming forward, it was like, it's even as you were talking and as we're
talking right now, I'm getting queasy. You know, should I play the vomit sound effects a few more
times? Or, you know, like the pie, the pie eating contest and stand by me. Yes, yes.
A dirty ash tray. That was a line in a movie, too, where they were trying to make somebody puke.
Yeah, but, but yeah, the chain reaction puking. Oh, yeah, yeah. And every teacher knows,
like you're listening, you know what I'm talking about? Oh, they know. They all know it, man.
But, you know, here's the best though with the puking. You call the custodian. They bring the
magic dust. And the magic dust is a, is a tube of, I don't know what's in that, but it is
magic. You just sprinkled that all over the puke. And somehow it magically sucks it all up and
makes everything just right. I don't know about just right. There seems to still be.
So as someone who's had to do that, because it's not, it's, it wasn't always our custodian's job.
Like, you know, he was like, here's the stuff. In case you need to have to do this,
you know, I thought the cleanup was always kind of like, this is an advanced technology that I'm
grateful for. But also still creates its own kind of like odor and residue that will never be
forgotten. But another big part about teaching kids is teamwork. So maybe when there's the vomit,
you know, clean up, clean up everybody. Do your share. Come on, kids. Let's clean up this vomit
together. That's a good way to do it. And by the way, we always, we always made it, made it if we
could, if the weather allowed now, an opportunity to go outside and have maybe an impromptu recess
or a little outdoor activity, just so I could everybody breathe fresh air before this, before,
before there are after trimmers again, after shots, because good, just keep, keep going.
That's my strategy. I'm leaving the building if, if this goes down. Next question, if I may,
I know we've been on this subject for about 16 minutes, but if I couldn't introduce another,
fellas, thinking about those sick days, thinking about snow days, which we all love.
The thing I hate most about that deadly pandemic we had is the fact that a normalized
distance learning, because I love those magical moments of getting away with not doing schoolwork
when you're supposed to. So guys, can you share it with me your thoughts? I mean, what do you
fellas think about the impact of Zoom and AI learning and all this work from home stuff on the
simple pleasure of having a day off? Oh, yeah, you know what? Good, good caller. I actually, Jacob,
yeah, there was, I think it's calming down, because I think what you're getting at is this
particularly like right after COVID, there was almost this kind of like, hey, no matter what time
of day it is, we can always set up a Zoom. Yes. And in fact, yeah, and in fact, if, you know,
why not just Zoom or even classrooms that had cameras in them for hybrid setups,
like if kids were out for more than so many days, they could attend by being, you know, in the
classroom through the hybrid camera connection. Yeah, I mean, there really isn't a need
to have snow days anymore. Except, I love Johnny. Yeah, well, I would say that we, and
remember we had some shows on this team, we had some superintendents come in and talk about some
of this way back, like right as the switch out of COVID and back to school was kind of just
taken off. And, and they had talked about this, you know, this doesn't mean that we won't have
snow days. This doesn't mean that if you're sick, you still have to join class, like if you're
really out, you should be out. And I think I think districts that have done that, it's been really
exciting. But what it does mean, I like the best of both worlds, Jacob, because we've all been
there where we've had so many snow days that now we have to tack on days in the summer. Yeah. And
so I think now there's this flexibility of like, okay, let's have a snow day, let's have a snow day,
let's have a snow day. But if we start to get into that dangerous number of too many snow days,
let's have, you know, like a zoom class day, let's have, you know, some online learning so that we
could count it as a day, and we're not tacking more days on into the summer. Let's just make your
policy, we've got, we're allotting for three potential snow days. And then after that, we can kick
in the zoom stuff. Well, let's not steal from Kings five, maybe even five, maybe you know,
snow days. And then after that, do your thing, Tim, can you sign on to this compact Johnny and I
have come up with with the 26 days? Tim, you're muted, man. Actually, I'm sorry about that. Yes,
you can sign me up, but I'm going to need you guys to send me that through a doc. You
signed document. Yeah, because generated by a yes. Well, you guys were talking about this
a little bit ago, talking about people have an excuses about how they want to leave for football
games that might be coming up and completely unrelated. I'm going to have to wrap this up
before the Eagles and Cowboys kick off here in 25 minutes. We got a game coming up soon. Are
you guys excited for the coming NFL season and who's your, who are your teams? Oh, Jacob,
there's only one, one team. Oh, is that right, Tim? That's it. Yeah. Pittsburgh Steelers, man,
sorry. It's all there is. You know, thank you. I just want to put that out there for Tim. I love
football season, man, because you know, one of the things I love about fall, it just reminds me that
like, hey, we have, you know, back to school, we have fall events. We have sort of a routine
to things like we're going to have Sunday, Sunday night football. We have, you know, really Thursday
night football, Sunday football, Sunday night football, Monday night football. You know, it's
it's football season. It's a big part of this country. We talked earlier this week about
patriotism. I think it's intimately woven in, you know, to our communities and to our country,
whether you like football or not, to find some way to gather with neighbors, you know,
friends, family, enjoy something together. And it's kind of like even though it's not our national
sport, you know, it's certainly one of the larger cultural shared experiences we have. So I get
real excited about it. Of course, I'm a big Lions fan, but I root for a number of teams. And so,
you know, I'm always a Lions fan, but just love to watch football and especially love food
in community, man. So we should do a whole special show on what's your favorite food to eat
when you gather to watch football, because man, I got so many favorite foods. I'm going to eat some
the night. That's a good one. Yeah. As I, I can see you as a Lions fan, Johnny, because I think when
Dan Campbell showed up and was biting kneecaps off of people, that's, that's the Johnny method.
I like that. For me personally, I'm a Bears and Chiefs fan. One of those is going a lot better than
the other, but for a long time, we did go off right there. The Bears stole our offensive coordinator.
Now he's a coach. I mean, I think you're on the upswing over there in Chicago. So, Johnny,
we've been on the upswing for 20 years now. And it never, that swing never actually hits the ball.
That's we've just true. It's true. We've been missing. There's one last thing we do here on
the producer's choice show that we do every week. When I have these wonderful guests, Dr. Tim
Lecker, Dr. Johnny Lupinachi. And that is simply this. Let's go.
Johnny, Tim, what's your favorite snow day activity starting with Tim?
Ice skating down at the pond behind my friend's house and playing hockey all day long
and putting a fire in a big 55 count rusted out barrel and spending the day right there until
man, until my toes were going to fall off. That's a good one to him. I like all those.
I'll see you this winter. Dr. Johnny Lupinachi, favorite snow day activity.
Oh, man, I think Tim nailed it. I love when we could go outside and play some hockey all day long.
If you got frozen pond by you, if you had like a little rink in the neighborhood that someone's
family made, that was always choice. But these days, man, I would say it's just like
buckling in and binge watching something on the TV and just riding out whatever snow storm
there is. And just relaxing because, you know, man, like we said earlier, sometimes you need a
mental health day. Sometimes you just need a snow day. Slow everything way down and winter it
out a bit. So I love doing that. For me on a snow day, I like to curl up next to the picture of a
fire on my TV and just spend the day talking to my AI. So I'm better, more of a modern guy than
you guys, but Jacob, you're the man. Thank you, Tim. And with that, I think there's now things.
It's, you know, it's time for your moment of zin. Yeah, it is.
And I guess this one, I guess this one will work out really well, according to the breaking
news that we now have a department of war. And so, quote from Howard, in war, good guys always
become bad guys. Is that true? Yes, they're changing the Department of Defense back. Yes,
to the Department of War. That's so stupid. Anyway, the show is driving up. I mean, yeah,
man, it's good to know. Thanks for the facts and thank you, listener, for grabbing this exciting
episode of Jacob's producer's choice. And remember, you could always grab more podcasts packed
full of all kinds of busted pencils content on Apple podcast, Spotify, or, and of course,
you can always find us on the civic media website or on busted pencils.com. I mean, you just
find us on the internet. That's how it works. If Tim would give you any tip, he'd say go ask AI
about busted pencils. But don't you dare be late for home room on Monday. And if you can,
make sure you grab class in session. That's week Wednesday. And if you don't already know,
you're going to love this. Of course, you could always catch the Friday episode, producer's choice.
But you got to tune in on Saturdays, 3 p.m. Central time across all the civic media network stations.
For one hour of your favorite blue-collar scholars, Tim and Johnny, and keep busted pencils.